Drinking your sorrows away
by Eric Border
Summary: Batman finds Joker drunk, after a while he begins to understand why the clown prince fights him every night. ONESHOT


Batman was called to a bar in the narrows where supposedly the Joker was terrorizing the customers. Batman arrived at the bar to find it completely empty other than a figure sitting at the bar, slouched over with sweaty hair hanging over his face. From a distance he just looked like a normal person stopping by for a drink but Batman knew that the Joker was not a normal human being if he could even be classified as one.

Batman walked up to the Joker who was nursing a bottle of vodka, he didn't seem to be at all worried about Batman's presence. Batman stood still looking at the sorry excuse for a man that sat before him, Joker did not even take the time to look his way as he took a long drink from the bottle, he seemed to be too drunk to care. Batman was wondering where the missing bottles from the bar had gone, they were nowhere to be seen. He looked around suspiciously until his question was answered when the Joker finished the bottle he had been holding and violently hurled it across the room. Batman had never seen the Joker in such a state, he decided that it would be easier for everyone if he just kept the Joker from violently lashing out "So that's where all the bottles went huh?" Batman joked with a smirk to lighten the mood. All the Joker did was lift his tired blood shot eyes to him before letting the fall back to the table.

"You gonna take me back to that awful place?" Joker slurred.

"What awful place?"

"Arkham, you know that place where everyone thinks I'm just a monster" he replied waving his hand loosely in the direction of the asylum.

"You are a monster" Batman said coldly.

" _I'm_ not a monster, _he_ is"

This confused Batman beyond belief considering that there was no one else in the room but them "Who is 'he'?"

Joker tapped his index finger on his temple sloppily "Him" he slurred. Batman looked at him, maybe he's finally lost if completely "I never wanted to hurt anybody" Joker said and sniffed.

"You have hurt millions of people, torn apart hundreds of families and here you are telling me it wasn't your fault?!" Batman growled.

"I didn't mean to let him out" Joker said, his voice trembling "There was always that little part of me that I'd never let show, the part of me that _wanted_ to hurt people, to watch them suffer. I tried so…so hard to stop it but when you threw me into the chemicals, I lost control"

Batman stared at him in astonishment, the Joker was talking about his past for real. No tricks, no jokes, not lies, not even a half truth. Batman vaguely remembered a man plummeting into the green liquid below him, he remembered it as the only preventable death he allowed to unfold but now he realised that it wasn't a death at all "What's your name?"

"Ahhh" he slurred "You've finally figured it out now" he chuckled "Jack and the Joker, different but the same"

"Jack? Your name is Jack?"

" _My_ name is Jack, _his_ name is Joker"

Batman was slowly piecing everything Joker…Jack was saying together. When he pushed Jack into the vat of chemicals, it was because he was trying to stop a criminal but in doing so he created something much…much worse. The Joker.

"This is where I was sitting when it happened" Joker stated suddenly.

"When what happened?"

"When _you killed_ her" he retorted, slight anger in his voice.

"I have never…"

"You telling me you don't remember her?!" Joker yelled suddenly furious "You don't remember her?!, my life was destroyed because of _you._ And you can't even remember what you did!"

"I didn't kill anyone"

"Yes you did" Joker said his voice cracked a little "Remember that…robbery…not far away from here? A few days before the robbery at…ace chemicals?" Batman nodded silently "You…you shut down the power by…breaking the transformer with a batarang" Joker said unsteadily picking up another bottle from the bar.

"Yes, I saved countless lives that night"

"You're a fucking selfish bastard!" Joker retorted "Did you really think you could shut down an entire districts power without…any causalities?"

"No one died, that's a success on my part"

"No one died?!" Joker yelled drunkenly "My _wife_ died! Do you even give a fuck about her?!"

"I can assure you…" Batman began.

"I was sitting in this spot when the policeman came in to tell me my wife was dead! _And_ my unborn child and you only made things worse by throwing me into those chemicals! You may as well have killed me! I would have preferred it!" Batman watched as Joker stood up and opened his arms "Come on, kill me"

"I don't…"

" _Kill me"_

"I don't kill"

" _Kill me you fucking coward!"_

"Mr.J!" cried a voice from the door. They both looked up to see Harley running into the room towards Joker quickly followed by Ivy, Two face and Scarecrow. Harley pushed Joker back onto the barstool "I think you need to sit down Mr.J"

"No!" Joker yelled pushing her away in fury and turning back to Batman "Kill me, come on. Do it!"

"J shut your mouth, you're drunk" Ivy retorted.

"Tell them batsy" Joker continued as Two Face and Scarecrow tried to hold him back from batman "Tell them what you did to me! What you did to my family!"

Batman said nothing as he watched Joker struggle before he fell to the groun. Everyone stared at him in astonishment "You can't even confess to it, you're _not_ a hero"

"Jay…" Harley said softly a she kneeled down next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

He brushed the hand away "Don't touch me" he retorted "Tell them right now or I'm leaving" he looked around at everyone's stares and stood up abruptly. He stormed towards the door "Aw screw it" he growled as he slammed the door open and left.

"B-man, what did he" she turned around to see Batman had left "say…to…you?" she finished slowly.


End file.
